Chrome

Updated: 10 months ago

In Short

Chrome is Google's powerful, flexible browser originally based on Apple's open-source WebKit rendering engine, but now powered by Google's own Blink fork. It also has Google's powerful V8 JavaScript engine, and hooks into all of Google outstanding services, like Gmail, Maps, Google+, and more. On iPhone and iPad, it offers the same account sync, but due to Apple's security restrictions, has to use WebKit and the slower embedded JavaScript engine.

Chrome is Google's powerful, flexible browser originally based on Apple's open-source WebKit rendering engine, but now powered by Google's own Blink fork. It also has Google's powerful V8 JavaScript engine, and hooks into all of Google outstanding services, like Gmail, Maps, Google+, and more. On iPhone and iPad, it offers the same account sync, but due to Apple's security restrictions, has to use WebKit and the slower embedded JavaScript engine.

For those that are hooked into Google services already and don't necessarily like the built-in Safari browser, Chrome may be a better option than for both iOS and Mac. Not only does Google sync your bookmarks and web history, just like Safari offers via iCloud, Google can show you what web pages you have open on any instance of Chrome you're currently signed in to. Left a page open on your Mac that you need to get to on your iPhone? No problem, just check your open tabs and pull the page in question right up. Google Chrome also ties in nicely with all of Google's other iOS apps.

Safari for Mac supports a plethora of browser extensions and plugins from password managers to Facebook status updaters. No matter what kind of plugin you need, you'll most likely find one for Chrome. And for times you don't want someone snooping around your browser activity, there's Incognito Mode, available for both iOS and OS X. Google Voice also allows you to search the web on your iPhone or iPad using only your voice, a feature comparable to built-in Siri capabilities.

Google Chrome is available for free for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can download them now via the links below.

27 January 2016 3By Jared DiPaneGoogle has pushed an update to its Chrome browser for iPhone and iPad, making it nearly 70 percent more stable as well as much faster. You can grab the latest update from the App Store now.

15 December 2015 8By John CallahamGoogle has launched a new Chrome web browser experiment that can turn your smartphone into a lightsaber. The promotion for the upcoming movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens is called Lightsaber Escape and lets gamers put that lightsaber to use as the main PC browser turns into an on-rails game where you must fight off First Order stormtroopers.

01 December 2015By Joseph KellerGoogle has updated its Chrome app for iPhone and iPad, adding support for 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The app also features better support for Bluetooth keyboards.

10 November 2015By John CallahamGoogle has announced it will end support for its Chrome browser for OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 in April 2016. This means that the browser will no longer offer security or other updates for those platforms in that timeframe.

01 August 2015 57By Rene RitchieThere have been numerous reports, including our own anecdotal ones, about how much better Safari is than Chrome when it comes to battery life on MacBooks. Here's another.

04 June 2015 3By Dan Thorp-LancasterGoogle announced that it has worked with Adobe to bring a new feature to its Chrome desktop browser that automatically pauses Flash content that isn't essential to a website that you're viewing.

27 May 2015 1By Joseph KellerGoogle is rolling out its app indexing to applications for iPhone and iPad. This will allow users to open specific app content from search results in the Google Search app and Chrome.

13 May 2015 3By John CallahamGoogle will only allow for Chrome extensions to be installed via the Chrome Web Store for all Windows and Mac users, in both consumer and development channels, starting in July.

16 April 2015 10By Joseph KellerGoogle has updated Chrome for iPhone and iPad, adding a Notification Center widget, support for app extensions, and pull-to-reload.
Chrome for iPhone and iPad has added a widget to the Notification Center that gets you started browsing faster...

20 January 2015 8By Joseph KellerChrome for iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 40, bringing Google's Material Design look to the web browser. This update also adds support for Handoff on iOS 8....

18 November 2014 11By Chuong H NguyenChrome has been updated for Mac users, adding 64-bit support for OS X users and a number of stability and performance improvements. Additionally, the latest build also adds new extension APIs. The latest update brings Google's browser to version 39.0.2171.65....